Change of Plans
by Graq the Wild Child
Summary: Things seem to be looking up after the opera, but as the wedding plans are made, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
1. Overture

Prologue

It was over. He had given her freedom, and in doing so, had lost her for   
himself. It made a kind of poetic sense. The short time musician turned to leave   
for home, alone and disgraced. Then a voice called out from the house.

"Please don't stop playing Fry."

There, several rows back sat the one for whom he had made and broken the   
diabolical deal. She smiled warmly in a way he never remembered having seen before.   
In truth, the smile had appeared before during his delusions of robothood and   
during the periods of time lost to the chronoton leakage.

"I want to hear how it ends."

He sat and slowly began to create a final, simple scene.

Fry came down from the stage to meet her in the aisle.

"Leela, does..."

She hushed him with a finger.

"You've been saying how you feel all night. I'd like a chance, just for a bit."

Leela reached out and held Fry's newly returned hands. She had made up her mind   
how to do this, and she was going to do it right, damn it.

"All this time, I was never sure of my feelings. Until recently, when I was in   
that coma. I realized the truth, and I should have told you this a long time   
ago."

She took a deep breath.

"I'm in love with you."

It took all of Fry's self control not to leap for joy. He reached into his   
pocket and pulled out a small case. Leela's heart kicked up another notch. The   
delivery boy was ever hopeful, wasn't he?

"In that case, will you marry me?"

He opened the case, revealing to his captain's surprise and fond amusement, a   
diamond scrungie. Somehow the silliness and reminder of a fate that was already   
hers elsewhere took away the tension she had been feeling.

"Of course."

Disclaimer: I don't own Futurama, and acknowledge it's rightful ownership by Mom   
Corp. But if I DID own Futurama, you can bet there'd be more shirtless   
Globetrotters and exploding hoverbikes.


	2. Letters from Leela

Chapter One- Letters from Leela

Fry groggily woke to a slightly familiar room. His felt giddy when he realized   
where he was. This turned to confusion when he realized he was still in most of his   
clothing.

"What? Then why, how? Buh?"

Apartment 1-I had apparently not seen any rocking of the casba the previous   
night, but there he was. Everything seemed pretty surreal. Sitting up he noticed   
a stack of papers under his holophoner on the nightstand. He glanced and saw the   
text began with

Dear Fry,

First of all, I have to apologize for all the times I've turned you down. I had a   
lot of reasons, none of them good or even excusable reasons. Like I said, I've   
been a fool. I guess it all started with those worms. That was the first time   
you'd ever sincerely told me your feelings. After you got rid of the parasites,   
I still thought there might be hope. Then you brought up Amy's name and I was so   
mad... for a short time I just dismissed you as a slovenly idiot. Of course,   
you're one my closest friends and I couldn't ignore that you have your good   
points too. So that excuse didn't even last me a whole day. After that I was   
still thinking about the time you dated Amy. I remembered how sick you got of   
her, and I didn't want that to happen between us. Even though you stayed friends   
with her after the break up, it's not like you spend days at a time on a ship   
taking orders from her. I couldn't jeopardize our friendship only to earn your   
resentment.

But you kept it up, and it got harder to disbelieve your sincerity. By this   
point I had put up a wall to prevent myself from trusting you. All my life I'd   
been deprived of any affection, and any time it was offered to me my hopes got   
crushed by betrayal in the end. You were there, there FOR me, when I thought I'd   
found my true species. That was another blow to my faith in people that had   
already been battered many times over. When I lose trust in someone or something   
it's almost impossible for me to regain it. Just like I wasn't strong enough to   
risk your friendship with me, I wasn't strong enough to put my trust in someone   
so close to me on the line. Given your past history with other girls I didn't   
know if you even were after me for the right reasons. That was incredibly stupid   
of me not to trust you, but by far the most stupid thing I've done is having all   
the wrong standards...

I have to admit, my taste in men has been totally screwed up. Growing up, I   
think you learned to be more realistic about people and relationships. I never   
had any normal relationships with other people until I was an adult. I looked   
for things in men that I didn't have, things I thought a good partner should   
have: money, authority, and well, normalcy. And you know where that got me. If I   
had just been looking for someone with a good heart, who loved me for who I was,   
I would have been led straight to you. Once again, a fool.

All the signs were there. Someone who's risked his life for you, who you would   
give your life for, who never stops being the sweetest person you've met, who   
makes you happy just by showing up when things are bad; What else is that but   
love? I've never told you this, but when I was in my coma fantasy, you were   
dead. I felt such guilt and pain that I was insane whenever I was awake. The   
only time I was happy was when I was with you, in my dreams. I was going to give   
in and sleep forever, but your voice called me back.

Fry, you're the most important thing in my life. That why it kills me to tell   
you this; I was deafened by Bender's megaphone, and I won't be able to hear the   
opera you've poured your heart and soul into. I've hurt you so much in the past,   
and if you don't want to keep dealing with me, I'll understand.

"Oh god, you found that thing?!"

Leela rushed into the bedroom looking flustered. Fry was a bit overwhelmed by   
all the new information, but the overall message seemed simple enough.

"Was I not supposed to Leela?"

"Well it's just, I wrote that when I was really, really down and it's all   
convoluted and confusing and, and, well I just didn't think you really needed to   
read all of it, I mean, it's not like you need to worry about every little   
detail of my feelings..."

"I care about your feelings, Leela! It's a lot of words but if it's important to   
you..."

She shook her head, revealing the new sparkly hair accessory on her ponytail.   
She seemed almost embarrassed.

"No see, I decided against giving you that because it would involve so much   
angst. Have you ever known me to go on and on like that about my childhood and   
personal pain?"

There was a pregnant pause, both of them imagining a snide comment from Bender.

"Never mind."

Fry remembered the other thingy that had been confusing him.

"How come I'm in your bed when it seems nothing, you know, happened?"

The mutant looked away for a minute.

"Um, you'd already had a long night, what with performing an opera and   
confronting Beelzebot and walking here..."

His jaw hung open in disbelief.

"You not telling me I just fell...?"

"... completely asleep the moment you touched the bed. You just looked so   
peaceful, I couldn't wake you up."

(Truth be told, she had shook him a bit, but Fry slept like a rock.)

"And I won't tell anyone." she quickly added, sitting beside him. "Not even   
Scruffy."

"Who?"

They each put an arm around the others shoulders, and just smiled.

"So, what are we doing about breakfast?" Fry axed innocently.

"I was just about to start it. Are you hungry?"

He looked at the clock. There was some time before they had to be at Planet   
Express. Then he looked back at Leela.

"Not really."

What happened next is really none of our business, now is it?

Disclaimer: Futurama is in no way shape or form mine, but is rather under the   
sovereign dominion of the Space Pope. After all, if I was really associated with   
the show, these first two chapters might have actually contributed to the fic's   
humor genre credentials. Lazy love scenes and character development crap. Ah   
well. It'll get funnier. Or I'll feed myself to Zoidberg.


	3. Helping Hands

Chapter Three - Helping Hands  
  
"... and that's how I got my crotch plate back from the recycling plant."  
  
Bender finished his tale as Fry and Leela arrived at Planet Express headquarters. He leaned back swinging his feet up onto the table.  
  
"Well this room just got a lot more boring." the robot quipped pulling out a cigar.   
  
"I see someone's recently come into an expensive accessory." Hermes noted.   
  
"We're engaged now!" Fry blurted out thoughtlessly. He caught himself and braced for a glare from Leela. She just smile/frowned at him.   
  
"It's true."  
  
There were congratulations all around.   
  
"I'll schedule in some time to file the requisition for your marriage license, hopefully this week."  
  
"That's good news!" said Farnsworth, "Now before I forget, I needed to see one of you, um... Zoidberg."  
  
"Hurray, I'm needed!" the crustacean exclaimed jubilantly. The Professor shook his head lightly.  
  
"Oh my no. I need to see Fry." Slowly he sat up and began walking towards a room, which may or may not have been his destination. "Come along now." The redhead shrugged and followed.   
  
Bender smirked. "So, you finally caved in." he said contentedly.  
  
"What do you mean 'caved in'?" the cyclops replied indignantly. Before she could continue, Zoidberg interrupted.   
  
"So how did Fry trick you into it? Not that I'd be interesting in doing something like that, it's just I need to know for my um, thesis, on human mating behaviors." he muttered pretending to write on a paper towel.   
  
"For your information, I want to do this. Fry didn't trick me into anything."   
  
"Ahah hah hah hah hah," Bender chortled.   
  
"Oh sure, dat's believable." said Hermes.  
  
"Right, you want to do this so he'll stop bugging you, of course. I knew if the chump kept it up you'd be bound to give in sooner or later. Or kill him, depending on which one of your ridiculously overdone chick moods you were in."  
  
"I don't have to validate myself to you crumb bums." she said storming off. "Yep, just like that." the robot added.  
  
"Ach, always 'bum this', 'bum that'. Zoidberg thinks maybe it's you humans who are the real bums, making food stamps illegal for my people. You overfish a couple hundred species to extinction and what do they do? Send you to scrounge in the garbage, why not?!"   
  
Leela downed a cup of coffee as Amy piped up.  
  
"I believe you Leela."  
  
"Thank you." She waited for the impending catty insult from her younger coworker, but it never came. "What, you're not going to say something like, 'After all, he's the best you could hope for,'?"  
  
"Fneesh Leela, that's horrible! I wouldn't say anything like that. Fry's a great guy."  
  
It was a little surprising, but she realized then just how much Amy had changed since they first met.  
  
Elsewhere, the Professor was making some last minute adjustments to a pair of rather insidious looking devices.   
  
"I started work on these when I heard you were going to be performing an opera."  
  
"But I just did last night," Fry interjected uselessly.   
  
"I knew you'd be needing some help since your hands are barely even suitable for a recorder, let alone a holophoner. So I built these dexterity enhancers for you."  
  
They looked like robotic claws. "You aren't going to replace my real hands with robot ones?" he axed nervously.   
  
"Of course not! That would never work, your human brain wouldn't know how to send orders to them. It'd be about as musically helpful as grafting slabs of metal to your wrists." At this point Fry decided it would be best just to keep his mouth shut. "Unless of course, you were trying to play the bongos."   
  
"Any who, I didn't invent these. I modeled them after a device that was used in the 21st century to help reduce carpal tunnel syndrome. On they go." He clamped on the enhancers, and a bit of hell broke loose. The machines began accelerating Fry's finger movements beyond anything humans were ever meant to achieve. They grabbed at every button, zipper, switch and buckle in the room at break digit speeds.   
  
"Aaagh!! How do I stop them?!" he shrieked in pain.  
  
"Now I remember!" said Farnsworth, indignant at the universe that had cursed him with such senility. "They stopped using the enhancers because they increased capral tunnel syndrome! Not to mention causing other catastrophic hand injuries."  
  
"HOW DO I STOP THEM?!"   
  
"Calm down," the elder intoned, "The batteries should wear out in," he paused glancing at the package they have come from, "Five years."   
  
"WHAT?!?"  
  
"I'll just have to use these left over chronotons the speed up the process."   
  
Fry didn't have time to wonder about that statement. The moment the time particles hit the devices he felt five years worth of pain all at once.   
  
"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"  
  
Everyone at Planet Express stopped what they were doing and turned toward the source of the scream.   
  
Disclaimer: This is merely a bit of unauthorized fan work, made without permission from Mr. Groening or the DOOP. Oh and don't worry about Fry, I'm sure everything will um... well it's not like he hasn't been through obscene amounts of pain before. He'll get better! 


	4. Tensions Rise

Chapter Three - Tensions Rise  
  
Fry and Leela exited the New Hands in About an Hour Store, relieved that the delivery boy's ordeal hadn't cost Fry the neural synapses in control his hands. Relieved or not though, Leela was still seething mad at the Professor. Not that this was much different from her usual attitude toward him, but at the moment she was closer to her "murderous rage" setting than her normal "general perturbment".  
  
"I'd tell you to sue your nephew for the damages, but it'd be pointless." she said tersely, "Hopefully the fact that I trashed his devices will make him suffer slightly."  
  
Fry flexed his new fingers. They weren't quite broken in, and it seemed to be taking longer than it had when they got bitten off by the T-Rex. Maybe he had gotten so used to robot hands that his normal "stupid fingers" just felt out of place. It was frustrating. He had been quiet after a few fits of screaming earlier, and seemed gloomier than usual. Leela sighed sadly in sympathy for his pain. She pulled him close with an arm around his shoulders, but let go when he winced sharply.  
  
"Agh!"  
  
"Sorry Fry. But I barely touched you!"  
  
"I know but it still hurts!"  
  
Experimentally the mutant lightly flicked his arm. "Oww ow ow!" She tapped his face. "Ouch!" She poked his ribs. "OWW." He curled into a ball on the sidewalk, trying not to whimper. Leela had never really minded inflicting physical violence before, so probably didn't feel as bad as you or I would hurting the love of our life, assuming you aren't a sadistic freak. Resisting the instinct to comfort Fry by holding him she dropped to her knees beside him.  
  
"Does it hurt everywhere?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"... everywhere?"  
  
The pain began to let up as he considered the implication. One very, very gay baby was born from that silence, as the superstition goes.  
  
"If you're still in shock then you shouldn't, well, come back to my apartment. At least until you're better."  
  
Awkward.  
  
In a distant corner of the galaxy, on a ship known as the Nimbus, life was also full of a half hearted relief that things hadn't gone even worse. Under the command of Captain Brannigan, they had just narrowly missed being massacred by the Brisznne Department of Homeplanet Security. Zapp had landed without clearance and ordered the ship's refuse to be dumped in a nearby cave. Already two DOOP regulations broken, the Brisznne interpreted the dumping of waste into their mostly subterranean highway as a biological attack and made a declaration of war. They had to rescind it however, once DOOP files showed that the planet was technically classified as uninhabited (due to its lack of civilization on the surface), and legally Earth could dump anything wherever they wanted. The Brisznne, still infuriated, were going to start an embargo on Earth goods, including encouraging their neighbors to do the same. All in all, it was a thoroughly repugnant and humiliating affair, and one that Lt. Kif Kroker was looking forward to forgetting. After all, Amy was on the vid-phone.  
  
"... and guess what? Fry and Leela got engaged! Who would have thought he'd finally get through to her?" she related excitedly.  
  
It was a somewhat surprising. Of course, despite how long they had been together, Kif still found it incredible that Amy loved him. So relatively speaking, it wasn't that hard to believe. As he replied, a man entered the room, looking very proud of his bold, reckless method of trash disposal.  
  
"That's wonderful. Be sure to give Captain Leela my congratulations on her engagement."  
  
Brannigan's pride cringed as the words "Leela" and "engagement" came together in one sentence. He assertively spun around his inferior officer to interrogate him.  
  
"Engagement?! I hope for your sake you're talking about some kind of catfight ridden military engagement Lieutenant!"  
  
The amphibian wasn't sure how to tell him. If Zapp knew the truth, he might try to disrupt the wedding, and Kif owed Leela too much to be responsible for that. On the other hand, the Captain hadn't tried to breakup Fry and Leela on the Titanic. Maybe he would finally leave the woman alone. Besides, Kif was an officer in the military. He couldn't lie anyway.  
  
"She's engaged to be married sir."  
  
The anger in Zapp's face changed to worried confusion. "But, but, I never..." In a half coherent monolog he rambled out his feelings and lusts. It was fairly pathetic. Amy almost felt sorry for him, but mostly disgusted. Men. You sleep with them once and then act like you have some sort of obligation to stay in contact with them. Typical. Kif looked at her apologetically, knowing that the need to console his Captain would cut their conversation short. He turned off the connection, while Amy silently thanked the universe for the interruption. She had been worried that bringing this up with her boyfriend would lead into an uncomfortable discussion about the possibility of them getting married. It wouldn't be as bad as the whole mother thing would have been, but she still wasn't ready for it. She had her reasons, but they were so flimsy one look at Kif's sad face would have destroyed her resolve.  
  
Awkward, awkward.  
  
"Fry, you're just in time!" Bender exclaimed as his human pet entered the apartment. "I got the whole reception menu written out. Now I know we can't afford Europa rock shrimp, but there're these bugs just the same size and color in Old New York!" His stomach's muscle memory of Bender's cooking was the most painful thing Fry had felt all day. He vaguely recalled the robot mentioning catering the wedding, but hadn't thought much about it, what with having his hands removed. He couldn't break his best friend's heart by excluding him from the preparations, but the role of chef was out of the question.  
  
"But Bender, that's so much work. You're already the Best Man-bot, I can't ask you to cook too."  
The silver machine looked almost moved to tears. "Really? I was worried you were going to ask Scruffy." He gripped Fry in one of his bad-for-circulation hugs until he switched moods again, this time to childlike delight.  
  
"Oh yeah! That means I get to plan the bachelor party! I've never been to a human bachelor party before, oh boy!"  
  
The food problem solved, Fry smiled as he sat down on the edge of his bed.  
  
"Man, I'm really going to miss living with you buddy."  
  
Bender stopped, confused at the statement.  
  
"Say what? Are you dying?"  
  
"No, I'm moving in with Leela. Duh, we're getting married." The bending unit's CPU was processing this, but his emotion circuits were still lagging. "But I'll visit you a lot. I promise you that."  
  
"Yeah, of course. Of course, you're moving out. I knew that." He abruptly left for his space of the apartment. "Good night Bender." Still a little dazed, Bender replied "Sure, good night."  
  
As he went into his rest cycle, he knew that there would be no such thing anymore. But how could he deny his best friend the thing he wanted the most? Wasn't it kinder to let the mammal run free than to keep him in captivity? Surely he was tougher now than the last time he had tried to stick out it on his own... yeah... tougher.  
  
Awkward, awkward, awkward.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Futurama. Well, I guess the three DVD box sets I own mean I own something, but that still doesn't mean I'm in anyway affiliated with the creators, or the producers at Fox (thank Todd). By the way, although I made a brief mention of a bachelor party here, I didn't plan for one in the outline of this story. So if anyone wants to either send me chapter containing a bachelor or bachelorette party to put in the fic (full credits to you in bold, of course), or to write and post a separate fanfiction that follows the plotline of this story about them, please do. Oh, sorry this got a bit angsty, but I'm building up to something here. I think. 


	5. Obstentatious Obstacles

Chapter Four – Ostentatious Obstacles  
  
Some weeks later found Turanga Leela at New New York City hall. It was getting closer and closer to the time of the wedding, and today she was going to wrap up an important loose end on the guest list.  
  
"Hello. I'm here to apply for a pair of mutant day passes."  
  
"Head to the third floor and turn left to room 3A."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Room 3A as it turns out, was the office of the mayor's aide. Leela groaned. Hopefully this wouldn't complicate things. _Amy must feel like this all the time. Glad I'm not her... for once._ She entered the room to find her ex-boyfriend ending a video phone call. He regarded her with casual surprise and folded his fingers in a business like manner.  
  
"Well, this is interesting. Are you here to ax for a second chance?"  
  
She willed herself not to roll her eyes.  
  
"Afraid not Chaz. I'm actually here to get mutant day passes for my parents."  
  
He smirked a little.  
  
"I suppose I could do that for you. I don't have much against mutants. They don't get taxed so we don't have to give them any government services. It's a fair tradeoff. What's the occasion?"  
  
"So they can attend my wedding."  
  
Chaz checked the city hall database and his smirk turned to mild disgust.  
  
"Wait a minute; you're registered to marry Phillip J Fry? Isn't he that guy who couldn't pooper scoop?"  
  
"Dark matter is heavy." She replied defensively. "So anyway, the date of the wedding..."  
  
"I'm not giving you the passes." The mayor's aide said coldly.  
  
"What?! But you just said..."  
  
"Look, I have a duty to this city. You can't just let the freaks come up here whenever there's an event of minor importance."  
  
"I can't believe you'd let a little bit of jealousy change your stance on the rights of an entire people!" Leela exclaimed angrily.  
  
"Hey, I'm the mayor's aide. I make my policy decisions based on public opinion, and public opinion says I don't owe you a damn thing. Enjoy your legally incompetent husband."  
  
She was about to deliver a high kick to shatter his jaw when she realized she could do far more damage through alternate means.

"The legal incompetent who's getting married to a woman who dumped you."  
  
And with that, she left. It was only after she left the building that the reality of the situation sunk in. Her parents couldn't come to the wedding. The people who she had longed for her whole life, the people she had only recently been reunited with, the people who had given her the chance to live in the sunlight; they wouldn't be there on one of the most important days of her life. And all because some goddamn jerk she had made the mistake of being impressed by was embarrassed at being outdone by Fry.  
  
_Screw him! I am NOT going to let this ruin our plans. We'll just..._  
  
Leela made it all the way back to apartment 1-I without coming up with a satisfactory completion to her thought. She decided to get the task of telling Fry out of the way.  
  
"Hi Fry."  
  
"Hi Leela. So, did you get the passes?"  
  
"Unfortunately not. I know my parents will just brush it off like they always do, but I wish there were some way they could be there..."  
  
"Maybe they could wear disguises?"  
  
"Wouldn't work. The Church of Robotology does a DNA scan on all organisms that come in, mostly so they can add them to their mailing list."  
  
"So _that's_ why I keep getting these pamphlets inviting me to join an interspecies bible study group."  
  
"Maybe we could use a two way holograph feed? No, it's just not the same."

The spaceship captain sighed as she stroked Nibbler. Maybe the marriage was just doomed from the start? All the little problems that kept popping up seemed like bad omens. Then, miraculously, Fry had a brilliant idea.

"Hey, wasn't there a church in the sewers?"  
  
Leela's eye widened in amazement. He couldn't really be suggesting...?  
  
"Fry, you'd really get married down there?"  
  
"Of course! How many people get married in sewers? I guess if one of the Ninja Turtles married April they probably would. Besides, regular weddings can get kind of boring. But no one will forget this one."  
  
Incredible. He was actually excited about doing something most humans would find appalling. Truly, the sewer was a far cry from where Leela would have envisioned her fantasy wedding, but she was through with idle fantasies. Having her parents there was far more important than the location.  
  
"Then let's do it Fry! I'll go down there first thing tomorrow."  
  
"Leela, I don't care where we get married. As long as we're together, that's all I need."  
  
.........  
  
At that point the one who had been spying on the conversation stopped listening. Lord knows they didn't need to hear the couple get mushy. The spy contacted the one waiting for new information.  
  
"There's been a change of plans... the wedding is going to be held at a new location. You know what to do."  
  
.........  
  
Disclaimer: Futurama is not my intellectual property, or my moronic property.  
  
Sorry this installment was a bit short, but it's the main turning point in the plot and I'm eager to get on to the juicy parts. I didn't want to bog it down with too many unnecessary descriptions. Also, no one has sent me any ideas for a bachelor/bachelorette party. I'm not as creative as Bender when it comes to depravity or good times, so if I wrote such a chapter it would most likely lean towards sucking. Remember, full credit to you, you can post it as its own story, yadda yadda yadda. I promise I will make up for the short length of this chapter with the next one, which should be at least three times as long as any I've posted. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed the story so far.


End file.
